The ninth installment of the Prison Architect Alpha has today been released, and its a big one. Weve tackled some of the big issues that have been on our list for a very long time - prisoner employment, laundry services, family visitation, workshops, and lots more.

Here is our Alpha9 video. Apologies for my distorted voice, I had the levels on my mic set completely wrongly this time around.

Central to the new version is the concept of Prisoner Employment, and weve been planning this feature for a long time. Prisoners can now perform a variety of jobs around the prison, saving you money on staff and raising money for you by selling goods manufactured by your work force. Prisoners can work in the kitchen, they can clean the prison, and they can work in the laundry and the workshop, both of which are new in Alpha9.

We have a brand new laundry system, which is entirely prisoner run. Clean uniforms will be distributed around your prison in laundry baskets, and prisoners will change into these after theyve had their shower. Dirty uniforms will be collected up in laundry baskets and brought back to the laundrette where they are washed. It can take quite a long time to cycle all the laundry in your prison - expect it to take several days to cycle everyone in large prisons.

We also have workshops. These rooms are used to produce trinkets which you can sell for profit - currently car license plates, which the prisoners make out of sheet metal with a couple of new bench tools. Its up to you if you wish to exploit your prisoners for cheap labour - it will certainly help with the cashflow, and your prisoners will be learning new skills at the same time. (Actually nobody learns anything in alpha9, but they will in a future update)

Prison labour is free right now, but eventually (in a future alpha) you will pay your prisoners a small wage, which they will be able to use to buy essential supplies from a prison shop. And all of these rooms - the kitchen, the cleaning cupboard, the laundrette and the workshop, will bring their own particular dangers to the prison if you chose to use them.

If that wasnt enough, visitation has also been added in alpha9. Most prisoners now have family, and those family will want to come and visit from time to time. (Note: All bios will be re-generated because of this). Click on any prisoner to see his known family members listed in his rap sheet. Build a visitation room and those family members will come to see their loved one in jail, which makes everyone a little bit happier. However you should enjoy the universal goodness of visitation while it lasts, because in a future alpha it will become a major source of smuggled contraband.

Theres also a number of visual changes: Most noticeably, the main toolbar icons have all been replaced with cleaner, higher resolution versions. You should also notice the grime and dirt and overgrown grass and pathways around your prison look much better (so to speak) - we used to rely on a single crack graphic for everything! Its now much more obvious when your prison needs cleaning and gardening, and much more satisfying to watch your janitors and gardeners doing that. And of course you can get your prisoners to do most of the cleaning now anyway, which gets the job done much quicker.

This was a major update, adding a load of new mid game content to the game. Weve got big plans for alpha10 as well, which should be another big one. In the mean time, enjoy the latest version.

Mars War Logs takes you to Mars, nearly a century after the cataclysm that threw the planet and its colonists into chaos. Water has become the most precious resource on the arid red planet, with a few companies fighting a perpetual war for its control.

Adds the Siege game mode to the Extra Content menu of Resident Evil 6! Protect the innocent civilians from the creatures until the rescue effort arrives. Players can choose to be an agent helping the civilians, or a creature hunting them down in this multiplayer mode that supports up to 6 players!

Play as two of the greatest science-fiction heroes ever -- Kirk and Spock  in the award-winning STAR TREK, a completely original co-op experience that expands the Star Trek universe even further. Set in the 23rd Century world of the massively popular Star Trek reboot, this cover-based shooter immerses players in a rich, original story and action-packed combat.

[ OPERATION PAYBACK ]- Uploaded Operation Payback,  a Classic Casual map group made up of seven top-rated Workshop maps on official servers- Allowed players to invite friends to play OP even if they havent purchased- Added upgradeable challenge coin, viewable in avatar, that progresses from bronze to silver to gold with play

[ RADAR ]- Spectators' radar was replaced with a minimap, allowing for better orientation and action-following without resorting to the overview.- When playing competitive or with sv_competitive_official_5v5 set, the minimap will show player hotkey values like the overview map does.- Added convar cl_radar_always_centered ( default 1 ) then when set to 0 makes more efficient use of the radar at the expense of moving the POV away from the center.- Added 2 options to the radar, allowing players to change the scale and orientation. These are exposed in the Game Settings menu, or directly with the cl_radar_scale ( default 0.7 ) and cl_radar_rotate ( default 1 ) convars, respectively.- Added convar cl_radar_icon_scale_min ( default 0.6 ) that allows radar icons to be kept large when the scale is reduced.- Moved the planted bomb icon from below the radar to the timer.- Fixed radar showing above or below on a player when spectating them from chase.

[ CS:GO PLAYER PROFILE ] - All players can now view other players medals/coins on the in-game Player Profile page.- Friends can now view your wins and Skill Group on your in-game Player Profile page.- You can now view a Player's Profile page by hitting Z (the Command Radio Message key) when spectating that player.- Added a shortcut to view a friend's CS:GO Player Profile page from the main menu friends list.

[ MISC ]- Added "Disable Autogenerated DM Spawns?" to info_map_parameters entity that allows mapper to specify that no dm spawns should be autogenerated and will be mapper-placed instead.- Added more options for map filtering in server browser:&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp-The default map filter now performs substring matching. (dust will find de_dust2_se, cs_dustyhouse, workshop or fastdl versions of maps, etc.)&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp-A single slash will search for a prefix in the base map name. (/cs will search for all hostage rescue maps)&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp-An asterisk will search for a map name suffix. (*_se will search for any map ending in "_se")&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp-A double slash will search for an exact map name prefix. (///125488374/ will search for the official workshop de_dust2_se. ///official will search for all official workshop non-se maps)- Added support for official cs_militia map workshop id 133256570 to be played as part of dedicated servers workshop collection mapcycle.

INSURGENCY is a first-person team-based shooter for up to 32 players designed for Windows® PC and Mac OS X (and in the future, Linux), using Valves Source Engine. INSURGENCY is based on the popular total conversion for Half-Life 2  Insurgency: Modern Infantry Combat  that saw more than a million free downloads and was awarded the ModDB Players Choice Mod of the Year in 2007. It is a highly intense, realistic experience. This means no cross-hairs, realistic weapon damage, and careful maneuvering.

Cry of Fear is a psychological single-player and co-op horror game set in a deserted town filled with horrific creatures and nightmarish delusions. You play as a young man desperately searching for answers in the cold Scandinavian night, finding his way through the city as he slowly descends into madness. With a strong emphasis on cinematic experience, immersion and lateral thinking, players will be taken on a nightmare rollercoaster-ride through the grim streets of Fäversholm and beyond. Not everything is as it seems...

Cry of Fear originally started out as a Half-Life 1 modification, set in the same vein as the classic survival horror games of old. 4 years in the making and picking up several modding awards on the way, it is now a free, standalone game for anyone to enjoy. Beware though, it's not for the faint of heart.